When the Beauty is the Beast
by SeaEmerald
Summary: The tale that started a hundred years ago began with an arrogant princess when she was cursed to remain as a terrifying beast until she finds true love. Her chance to break the spell finally arrives after ninety-nine years when she holds a handsome prince captive.


**DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN WINX CLUB.**

**AN: **Hi, everybody! How's it going?!

This is a completely AU story that just came to mind. I just wrote it for fun and nothing more, so please don't be mean? :) See you down below!

**Note: **By the way, the protagonists will be sort of in character but will behave a little…extremely because, well, I kind of need them to. :) And second, magic does exist in this fic but only to an _extent_.

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**·:· — ·:· Prologue ·:· — **·:·

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_**Nearly one hundred years ago…**_

"_Princess Ste—"_

"_I said that I hate this dress!" a furious blonde screeched shrilly before tossing the midnight-blue satin ballgown, encrusted with weeks-worth of efforts to intricately sew each crystal and sequin in its rightful place with sheer perfection and delicacy, in her hands like it was beneath even a rag cloth. _

_Gasps of startlement were heard from the attending maids as they scrambled around to pick up the dress that now carpeted the freshly mopped floor from this morning. "But Princess Stella—" a confused, anxious redhead tried to get the princess to see reason. They don't really have much of a choice anymore. They had such little time to make such significant alterations. _

_Vicious brown eyes turned towards the pompous maid in indignation. "But"…? Had she just said…"but"? As in…a spark of opposition? How…DARE she? The honey-haired princess glowered spitefully at the red-haired piece of filth who dared to question the real authority here. "Do you dare challenge my word, you peasant?" Stella spat venomously at the grimy maids._

"_No, Princess. O-Of course not," the redhead cowered immediately in dread, lowering her blue eyes in dejection. "I was merely saying that—" she tried to defend herself, that she didn't mean to cause any distress or offense._

"_Say?" the blonde scoffed, quoting the rustic. "You think you're high enough to have a say in what I wish to wear for MY Princess Ball?" Her glare basked over the remaining four paysans, silently telling them that not only did they not have a right to voice their opinions, but they did not even have the inescapable privilege to think it. _

_The five girls remained quiet at the princess's well-known, hotheaded temperament. The longer they stayed quiet, the faster this is over and the sooner they can get back to their daily chores, which were the highlights of their day._

_Oblivious and uncaring to the crestfallen faces of the girls who were the same age as her, the spoilt princess continued her screaming slander at the rest of the entourage, which constituted of royal tailors and fitters. _

_As the blonde ruthlessly continued firing away instructions, she didn't quite notice the angry tears brewing in the eyes of the maids who were cursedly tasked to be available at the beck and call of the princess. _

_Bloom, the redhead who just figuratively got pummeled by the fiery blonde, appeared shaky, smiling only faintly, just faintly, as the brunette beside her, Flora, gave her a concerned glance. In the meantime, the remaining three, who're not quite as sensitive or soft as the other two, gave the blonde a look of hatred. With her attitude, this palace shouldn't just worry about guarding the outside for unwanted intruders. They should start sweeping the insides as well._

"_Go!" the blonde ordered, after finishing hassling the tailors to make new adjustments to another dress, turned to the maids and hissed at them to give her some peace while the appointed hair stylists and makeup artists quickly got to setting up the equipment to fashion the princess with a beautiful hairstyle for today._

_The maids scrambled out of the room in hurried fashion, lest the tempered princess changes her mind. _

"_Do we have to listen to this?" Musa hissed in the lowest tone possible to the dark-skinned brunette, Layla, walking beside her._

"_What choice do we have?" Layla darkly grumbled under her breath, resisting an angry scoff._

"_Not now," Bloom, who was usually the voice of reason around here, hissed with a look of warning. It's beyond perilous if they were caught belittling the fickle princess. _

_The Princess Ball was typically hosted in honor of a princess when she "came of age." With the princess's twenty-first birthday*** in less than three days, she's even crankier than usual, if that were even possible, as she tried to have every piece of her outfit molded and trimmed to perfection._

_The five girls carried the beautiful, custom-designed birthday gown out of the princess's sight. They sighed, all equally disheartened at the wastage of such beauty. It took nearly four months to design this gown. From finding that perfect shade of indigo to gathering and importing the rarest of crystals and sheer sequins to adorn the satin fabric, it wasn't easy. And that's putting it mildly. The love she expressed for it a few weeks ago was nowhere to be found as the picky princess seemingly have found a flaw in the inside stitching. Every inch of this gown was designed per Her Highness's order and satisfaction. Where else will they find another gorgeous gown, one that's subservient to the princess's vain desires, in three days' time?_

_They let out tired sighs, knowing that these will possibly be the longest three days yet…_

* * *

_**Three days later…**_

_Despite the dark clouds that smudged the clear, crepuscular skies, the castle proudly stood tall in its full glory, illuminated by artificial white/golden lanterns and lights. _

_At the evening stroke of seven, guests started to slowly pour in. The wealthiest and elitist families of Solaria, along with nobles, heirs, and heiresses from allied kingdoms near and afar, entered through the royal gates, dressed in their finest riches and adorned with most scrupulous of jewelry. _

_Gentle music filled the air, inviting the guests to smile harder and interact with one another with lifted spirits. Chefs stood in the far walls of the grand room, gently stacking fresh, warm plates for guests. Delicacies, ranging from sweet to tangy and spicy, and platters stuffed with fresh fruits and desserts lay in wait. Fountains drizzling with chocolate stood in standby, inviting especially those invitees with an exceptional sweet tooth._

_Waiting for the ceremony to start, the guests busied themselves with greeting familiar faces. _

_In the meantime, King Radius, the proud father of his beloved, one and only daughter, let out a sigh of content at the slowly amassing people. He looked pleased with the number of potential suitors gathered down below. He recognized a few of them. Prince Ecter from the neighboring kingdom of Eraklyon, Prince Terence from the oceanic kingdom of Andros…_

_Radius continued to spot familiar faces. He couldn't believe that his daughter is twenty-one years old already. He hoped that she would pick one of the fine gentlemen who've graciously arrived for her this evening. Grinning in excitement, Radius got a little ahead of himself. Surely, if tonight goes well and his daughter's eyes manage to catch someone fancy, she'll get married. It's every father's dream to see his daughter's future secured. To see his little girl get married to a man who will take care of her better than her father ever could. His daughter's marriage will surely be a revelry that will be remembered for ages throughout the lands. _

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_The ceremony shortly began. The hall was lulled to silence when the soft music was replaced by something with a little more grandeur. Two messengers announced the presence of His Highness. _

_The guests watched with respect and excitement as the king showed his face from the top of the staircase, overlooking the ballroom. He was draped in royal robes, the majority of which were tinted with gold and crème and save for the occasional specks of red. He wore the regal headdress, the symbol that gave him authority over the nation. The gold-plated crown proudly sat atop his head as the monarch addressed his guests for the evening. "Ladies and gentlemen, friends of Solaria! Welcome!" King Radius announced warmly with a large smile before spreading his arms wide open._

_Cheers erupted from the crowds. They raised their champagne-filled glasses in the air with similar looks of enthusiasm and eagerness. _

"_Thank you for coming," Radius nodded with a pleased grin. "It is an honor to celebrate my daughter's birthday with all of you." More cheers delightfully silenced the happy king. He paused for a few moments, waiting for the lauding to simmer down. "I present to you Princess Stella, the sole heiress to Solaria!" he raised his voice before gesturing behind him. The crowd went wild, of course. Everyone was eager to see the princess for themselves, who is famed throughout the lands for her celestial beauty. _

_The hall grew quiet as a composed blonde emerged from the doorway and into the light. She screamed nothing but elegance in her ruby-pink dress with one shoulder sleeve on her right arm, a white off the shoulder strap on her left arm with dangling, topaz-blue jewels and amethyst-violet ribbons. Her hair was held up with a star-shaped hairclips, the color of which match her blue teardrop earrings. Her makeup wasn't subtle; they enhanced her features beautifully, the prominent of them being her smoldering honey-colored eyes._

_Potential suitors gaped in pure awe. Others nodded with self-proclaimed seals of approval. Overall, not a single guest had anything to complain as the princess revealed herself. _

"_My dear daughter," Radius took her hand and returned her smile. He turned to face his audience, introducing his priceless possession to the entire court._

_Before long, the cheers that have died down were aroused once more as the young princess smiled luminously at everyone, not-so-subtly running her amber eyes over the young handsome princes who obviously came to woo her hand into marriage._

"_Let the night commence!" Radius announced as he and his daughter climbed down the stairs. _

_The crowd cleared the way, like how Moses parted the Red Sea, as the king and his daughter approached the center of the ballroom in time for the first dance of the night: the father-daughter dance._

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_Ignoring the rest of the nation, the castle continued to glow with festivities. If anything, the night just began. _

_After dancing with her dear father, with an air of confidence, she accepted every time a new prince requested her for a dance. Why not? After all, it IS her night. They're here for her, never the other way around._

_The princess continued dancing the night away. Her beauty took each of her dancing partners' breaths away. Her smile and laughter, radiant and effervescent as the sun itself, gave her the undivided attention that she so truly deserved._

"_And where do you hail from, Prince Oren?" the blonde asked, making small talk with her latest partner._

"_Kingdom of Domino, Princess," he answered smoothly. "You dance very well," he smirked, complimenting her._

"_As do you," she giggled. "Do you have—"_

_The doors suddenly flew open as a gust of wind blew around the room out of nowhere, startling the guests. A few feminine screams of shock got lost in the bellowing gale. Couples and partners ceased to dance as they looked around in confusion. _

_Stella looked outside to see that it was raining. She frowned. She hated the rain. _

"_Close the doors—" guards started to holler left and right as they hurried to get the situation back under control. The wind got stronger. _

_Stella winced as the strands in her ponytail slapped her across the cheeks. She suddenly screamed when the ornate stained-glass windows, which were supposed to be firmly locked and secured, somehow freed themselves from their holds and flew open. Oren led himself and the startled princess into a secluded corner, where they joined a few other lots. _

_It was only a few seconds of interruption, but it threw many in confusion and chaos. _

_A few gasps were heard when a glint of darkness, a bird, appeared out of nowhere and flew around the ballroom. _

_Screeches of disgust echoed from the ballroom at seeing the black crow. Its ink-stained wings and beady black eyes made Stella shudder. She glared at the uninvited thing before screaming to the guards to momentarily forget about the doors and shoot the ugly crow down. _

"_No, don't, please!" a frazzled voice frantically shouted. _

_Stella glared at the interruption. She redirected her gaze to a slopping, wet woman who ran inside. A dark red robe hid the woman's features out of view. She panted as she barged inside the room, staining the freshly polished floor with cold droplets. "Please don't!" the woman pleaded, halting the guards from firing their readied weapons. "Poor thing is just cold from the rain!" she explained._

"_And who are you?" Stella demanded, whipping herself away from Oden._

_The uninvited lady paused in her tracks and slowly pulled down her hood to reveal a haggard, old woman. She noticed how her presence quieted down the buzzling hall from moments earlier. She stole a glance at those pretty women with perfectly manicured nails and red painted lips frown at her uninvited company. The princess's glare doubled when she realized that her party has just been crashed. It has just been interrupted unrightfully by this homeless, old lady?! To say that she looked peculiar was an understatement. She had catlike hazel eyes and a grey, unpolished mop atop her head. She looked as old as a hundred years with those ugly wrinkles on her face. _

"_How dare you?!" the princess shrilly yelled. "How dare you ruin my party!" _

"_I beg your pardon, Princess," the old woman bowed. "Please. Please allow us to take shelter until the storm ceases."_

"_Don't talk to me, you peasant," Stella huffed with contempt before turning to the guards. "Guards! Why is that bird still alive?!" she hissed, glaring at the hideous bird. _

_The guards readied their weapons. _

"_Princess of Solaria, please! Please take mercy upon us—"_

"_I said, fire!" the blonde glared, refusing to address the bumbling hillbilly._

_The mysterious old woman, who has been keenly observing the supercilious princess, glared at her before deciding that enough is…enough. "Have you never been taught that looks can be deceiving, Princess?" she glared before shedding her disguise. _

_Stella gasped and instinctively jumped back a foot when the robes that covered the old woman now flew away from her body in a fit of rage. _

_The seemingly old woman glared at the haughty, self-entitled spawn of an irresponsible father. Her eyes pulsed with gold before they narrowed ferally. Her gray hair no longer retained the illusion as it turned back to its rightful, burgundy-purple color. Her unrefined mess of hair transformed into an intricate bun on top of her head. After a pause of shocked silence, loud screams of horror were heard throughout the room as they watched the mysterious woman age down by literal decades. _

_A witch. She was a witch. _

"_W-Who a-are you?" the blonde, clearly having underestimated her opponent, asked the woman. The young princess stared at her, baffled. How did she do that? How did she age backwards in mere moments?_

"_I am the one who have come to teach you a lesson for your impudence, Princess of Solaria," the witch glowered as she spread her palms out wide. _

_Guests watched in horror as her palms started to glow a bright green. Before long, the people were thrown into a fit of panic as they madly dashed left and right to get out of the castle, absentminded to the raging storm outside._

"_I banish you to a hundred years of eternity," the witch announced, paying no attention to the frightened crowds around her. _

_Stella screamed when the witch outstretched her hands toward her. A fluorescent beam of green light from her palms and hit the blonde square in the face._

_The blonde instinctively covered her pretty face with her hands, screaming in fear. She continued to scream, terror-stricken, as the witch's words echoed inside of her head as the latter finished the spell:_

…

"_The wealth and glory you celebrate, the beauty you attain, _

_From now on shall be in vain,_

_For a hideous beast you shall remain,_

_Until only true love can set you free._

_Beware that if not found in a hundred years,_

_You shall be reduced to nothing but ashes and tears."_

…

_Silence. _

_Stella trembled when the chaos around her quickly lulled into nothing. She didn't hear any more of those terrified screams or the witch's hideous words in her ears. The princess shakily opened her eyes only for them to widen when she saw that the ballroom, which was cluttered with people just moments earlier, was now empty. No one was in sight. No dancers, no princes, no food, nothing. Absolutely…nothing. It was merely a golden-lit, enormous and vacant room. "Daddy?" she whimpered, terrified as she twirled around multiple times for signs of life. _

_None. She was…she was all alone. She didn't realize the tears that have been flowing out of her eyes until she felt moisture on her cheek. She raised her hand to wipe it away only to freeze in shock at the sight of her hand. Her hand wasn't the porcelain-smooth definition of daintiness she grew up with for the past twenty-one years. Instead, it was grotesque and huge with thick bush of brown hair. _

_Horror-stricken, she let out another scream at her beastly hands, praying that this was just an illusion from someone her father might've organized in honor of her birthday. _

_Her eyes automatically fell on the reflecting tiles of the floor she stood on. Where there was a beautiful, young maiden now stood a hideous, terrifying beast. Her eyes gaping at the reflection of the monster that mimicked her terror, she let out another demonic cry of terror from the pits of her throat before dropping to the floor with a thud and passing out cold on the spot._

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**AN: *****I know that twenty-one years is definitely not the "coming of age" thing for a girl. I think, in the olden times, it's actually eighteen (or was it sixteen?). Or maybe even younger. I don't know.

…I don't even know from where I came up with this idea. I was watching the episode where Stella gets turned into a monster and my thoughts carried me all the way here.

And _pleaseeee, _don't cringe at my hopeless poetry skills. I know that spell with Griffin is just…no. Just no. I'm _really_ bad at poetry. Probably because I spent only ten seconds on it -_- Hey, if anyone has _any _ideas on how I can improve that train wreck, let me know and I'd definitely take it into consideration. :)

Obviously, this story _is _one of the never-ending reincarnations of _Beauty and the Beast, _but I've also merged it (just slightly) with _Sleeping Beauty. _Only difference is the beast in this story is no beauty, and she ain't been asleep for 100 years straight.

One of the things I detest in this world is the stereotypical mindsets, especially the situation where it's the girl who's always the damsel in distress. If you think of it this way, all the stories we've read since we were kids featured this stereotype. I've only read about stories where the girl falls in love with a monster (because she's always_ forced_ to be with him). She falls in love for something _PAST _looks. But the men? Dear god…they lay their eyes on a beautiful girl and one of the two things happen: either 1) they beg her to marry him and some are even ready to leave their wife and/or kids for this new sparkly object or 2) they just carry her off without asking what she thinks because, well, they're the perfect princes and the girl would automatically love them. Looks aren't everything? Pfft. Please tell that to the folklores that have been around for centuries, teaching precious babies the wrong message.

Moving on, I hope you guys did enjoy that or at least find it moderately entertaining xD Because I sure had fun writing it. I just couldn't resist! Oh, and by the way, this story is _not _based on the 2017 version of _Beauty and the Beast. _I did not enjoy or relate to that movie because that wasn't the story that I grew up with.

I'm on writers' blocks for all my incomplete stories, so I just wrote this for fun. Keeping fingers crossed for inspiration. If you want me to update this one, I might (but I have to warn you that it _won't _be anything like the classic _Beauty and the Beast _that we all know and love). If you don't want an update, that's fine too. :) I'm just as content with leaving it as a standalone chapter. :)


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